1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the packaging of electronic components. More particularly, the present invention relates to a stacked electronic component package and method for fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
To reduce the size of electronic component packages, electronic components such as semiconductor dies were stacked one upon another within a stacked electronic component package. To space the upper electronic component above the lower bond wires connected to the bond pads of the lower electronic component, a spacer was used.
The spacer was mounted to the upper surface of the lower electronic component inward of the bond pads on the upper surface of the lower electronic component. The lower bond wires were connected to the bond pads on the upper surface of the lower electronic component. The lower surface of the upper electronic component was mounted to the spacer, which spaced the lower surface of the upper electronic component away from the upper surface of the lower electronic component and the lower bond wires.
A spacer made of silicon, i.e., a silicon spacer, was used. As a silicon spacer is nonadhesive, use of the silicon spacer required an upper and lower adhesive. The lower adhesive mounted the lower surface of the silicon spacer to the upper surface of the lower electronic component inward of the bond pads of the lower electronic component. The upper adhesive, e.g., a film adhesive, was applied to the entire lower surface of the upper electronic component. The upper electronic component having the upper adhesive applied to the entire lower surface of the upper electronic component was then mounted to the silicon spacer.
An alternative to the silicon spacer was a double-sided film spacer. A double-sided film spacer had adhesive on both the upper and lower surfaces of the double-sided film spacer. This allowed the double-sided film spacer to be mounted directly to the upper surface of the lower electronic component inward of the bond pads of the lower electronic component and the upper electronic component to be directly mounted to the double-sided film spacer with or without the application of additional adhesives. This simplified manufacturing resulting in a lower manufacturing cost of the stacked electronic component package. Further, a double-sided film spacer was less expensive than a silicon spacer again resulting in a lower manufacturing cost of the stacked electronic component package.
One problem associated with both the silicon spacer and the double-sided film spacer was that the spacer was mounted directly to the upper surface of the lower electronic component inward of the bond pads of the lower electronic component. Accordingly, the upper electronic component was unsupported above the bond pads and bond wires of the lower electronic component. This increased the stress on the upper electronic component, e.g., during wirebonding, and thus increased the chance of cracking the upper electronic component. Further, both the silicon spacer and the double-sided film spacer were relatively thick resulting in a relatively tall stacked electronic component package.